As Parimal Kopardekar lists the five basic principles guiding the development of a traffic management system that will handle the millions of unmanned aircraft expected to be in U.S. skies in the next few years, the problem doesn’t appear complex.&nbsp;First, he says drones shouldn’t collide with each other. Second, they must keep a safe distance from manned aircraft. Third, their pilots should be aware of the rules governing the airspace in which they’re operating. Fourth, unmanned aerial system (UAS) operations must defer to public safety. Finally, there must be a way to positively identify every drone.&nbsp;However, bringing these elements together to develop a UAS traffic management system that suits the needs of hobbyists while enabling businesses and other organizations to take advantage of the technology’s tremendous potential is likely years away.&nbsp;Kopardekar—or PK as he’s known—has become the face of UAS traffic management. He serves as manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous System Operations Project based at the agency’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field south of San Francisco. He’s also the principal investigator of NASA’s UAS traffic management (UTM) program, the highway in the sky where everyone from hobbyists to commercial UAS operators must find a way to safely coexist, as well as helicopters and crop dusters that routinely fly in the airspace below 500 feet.As Kopardekar readily admits, designing and developing the UTM system is not without its challenges.&nbsp;“If you’re going to do deliveries all the way to the doorstep—what we characterize as the last 50 feet problem—then you need software and hardware that collectively works together when all of a sudden there’s wind, a fallen tree branch or kids playing soccer,” he explains. “You want that onboard capability that decides whether to land, abort or go somewhere else. These are the key technology pieces we need. Plus, we need a better prediction of weather and wind at lower altitudes in airspace.”Another challenge is providing critical information on a timely basis to UAS operators to improve their situational awareness. This not only lets pilots of manned and unmanned aircraft know where they’re operating in relation to each other, but also provides them with changes in the weather or lets them know when the FAA issues temporary flight restrictions.Connecting Manned Protocals to UAS Flights&nbsp; Mike Glasgow, chief architect of Lockheed Martin Flight Services, is working to move the briefing system that’s worked well for general aviation (GA) pilots into the UAS age. This means changing the way UAS pilots flying under FAA Certificates of Authorization (COAs) file Notice To the Airmen (NOTAMs) over the phone to alert others about their operations, as well as the way Flight Services briefs pilots.&nbsp;“In today’s environment, not everyone can just go fly,” Glasgow says. “Handling the current volume is not too much of a problem, but looking into the future, we were concerned that a telephone-based model to report your operations does not scale.”Lockheed Martin has created a web-based system through which UAS operators can file NOTAMs online that then show up as UAS operating areas (UOAs) on a national map at www.1800wxbrief.com, the Flight Service pilot briefing website. It shows pilots where all the known UAS operations are being conducted on UOAs filed on the website or submitted via NOTAM.“Right now, all the UAS support is integrated in with the GA pilot capabilities,” Glasgow says. “At some point we may stand up an additional website that is just the UAS capability so that the operator who’s not a pilot doesn’t have so much stuff around them that they don’t really understand.”Kopardekar says that for now with only a few thousand Section 333 exemptions issued by the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial UAS purposes and no beyond visual line-of-sight operations allowed, traffic management isn’t an urgent need.&nbsp;“Regardless of whether you’re driving an autonomous car or driving the car yourself, you still need rules and traffic lights. You need some way to organize the traffic when the demand exceeds capacity,” he says.&nbsp;NASA’s UTM won’t resemble the fixed system used for auto traffic and it won’t be similar to that of manned aviation, according to Kopardekar.&nbsp;“What we are doing is digital, versatile and flexible; it’s on-demand capacity,” he explains.While the FAA is the government agency most often identified with the safe integration of UAS into the national airspace, NASA is playing a lead role in developing the system that will be needed to handle commercial and recreational UAS traffic in the Class G airspace below 500 feet.“The first A in NASA is aeronautics,” says Kopardekar. “We have been doing air traffic management, related research and development for over two decades.”In addition to working with the FAA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Department of Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA has more than 125 collaborators in industry and academia assisting in the development of UTM.“NASA is a really good interface in that they are the government, but they’re not the FAA,” says Jonathan Evans, CEO of Skyward, a company based in Portland, Oregon, developing its Urban Skyways Project in partnership with NASA. “They’re capable of promulgating technical standards to the wider industry at the pace it needs to happen.”Kopardekar believes that because the project deals with national and regional security, safe airspace integration and scalable operations for economic growth, the number of external partners involved is warranted.&nbsp;“We need to make sure we take into account all the use cases and all the different variations of technology out there—sensors, 3D maps, ADSB and tracking,” he says. “It’s working out as we had envisioned or even better. People really like the construct of coming to NASA UTM to collaborate with each other and accelerate these sort of things.”The UTM system being developed by NASA is designed to increase or decrease the requirements on a UAS and its operator depending on the type of application being performed, the location of the flight, the capability of the aircraft and the airspace requirements. In other words, a drone delivering a package in a congested urban area will have more operational requirements than a drone flying a precision agriculture mission in a remote rural location.&nbsp;“The elegance of it is very dynamic and as needed,” Kopardekar explains. “There’s flexibility where possible and structure where necessary. You only offer structures when you need to. The system is intelligent enough to bring those structures in.”Unveiling UTM&nbsp;&nbsp; The NASA UTM system will be rolled out in four builds, the first of which was tested in August and involved approximately 100 flights in low-traffic, low-density airspace with 11 collaborators. Among the technologies tested was a cloud-based system that showed where UAS trajectories overlapped and created new flight paths to avoid collisions.&nbsp;“We learned lots of good things doing this in the national airspace—how the system could evolve, how the system could work and what kind of challenges we see,” Kopardekar notes.&nbsp;The test for Build 2 is scheduled for October 2016 and will involve beyond visual line-of-sight applications to study tracking and establish procedures and “rules of the road” for UAS operations over sparsely populated areas. Kopardekar describes the Build 1 test as a stepping stone toward Build 2.&nbsp;“Beyond visual line-of-sight has its own challenges,” he says. “Some capabilities on the vehicle need to be in place to be more autonomous.”&nbsp;The Build 3 tests are set for January 2018 and will test beyond line-of-sight operations over moderately populated areas, interaction between manned and unmanned aircraft, UAS tracking and various communications options. Build 4 in March 2019 will test beyond visual line-of-sight operations in urban environments, autonomous operations and such applications as news gathering, deliveries and personal use.At the UTM Conference sponsored by NASA last July, Amazon and Google presented competing ideas on how low-altitude UAS traffic management should be handled to accommodate the companies’ plans for package delivery via drone. Both companies advocated airspace dedicated to certain uses.&nbsp;Fabrice Kunzi, who participated in the convention and is the chief technical officer for Panoptes UAV, is concerned that such approaches will result in UAS segregation rather that than integration into airspace in which manned aircraft operate.&nbsp;“There’s definitely two worlds here and I think a lot of people are starting to pick up on that,” he explains. “By definition, it’s not integration because we say everybody above 500 feet stays out and everybody below 500 stays in. We’re segregating traffic in order to manage it. That’s different from airspace integration, which is what a lot of people are advocating.”He has other concerns about the UTM approaches advocated by the retail giants.&nbsp;“One thing that both of them just kind of glossed over is that it’s easy to do traffic management if everybody’s cooperative and is telling you who they are, where they are and where they’re going,” Kunzi says. “But you can’t assume that everybody is cooperative.”While he agrees that Goolgle’s idea of using cell phone networks for UAS navigation has merit, Kunzi questions their reliability for autonomous beyond visual line-of-sight operations.&nbsp;“Cell phone-based technology isn’t nearly as reliable as the technology that we find at the front end of an airplane,” he says. “If you’re going to use it as a means to provide safety in the national airspace system or a low-altitude environment, the level of reliability that you need the cell phone system to provide is not the level of reliability that the system was originally designed to support.”Another UTM challenge revolves around presenting information to UAS pilots and operators who might have little or no experience in manned aviation.&nbsp;“It’s great to know where you’re going before you fly, but it’s better to know what’s going on as you fly,” says Shaun Muehler, a former military pilot and the CEO of Botlink, a company in Fargo, North Dakota, developing an application that serves as the interface with the drone operator.“It can’t just be a map that you log into and see where you’re going to fly and see what airspace is around it and who controls it,” Muehler explains. “It has to be interactive with the pilot as he’s flying, as he’s working his drone and his workflow. He’s got to get alerts and he’s got to get notified as his drone is in the air.”Lockheed Martin allows UAS software developers to integrate its flight briefing information into programs and applications that UAS pilots and operators use to manage their flight operations.&nbsp;One of the first UAS flight management programs to integrate Flight Services information was VirtualAirBoss developed by SmartC2 headquartered in Grand Forks, North Dakota.“Some people focus on putting the UTM in the aircraft,” says Stuart Rudolph, SmartC2 CEO. “We focus on it as being able to schedule flights, making plans beforehand and saying where we’re going to fly.”For example, Rudolph says VirtualAirBoss demonstrated its ability to integrate with NASA’s UTM last June during the annual Coastal Trident exercise off the coast of southern California, a field exercise involving state, local and federal agencies responding to simulated regional threats and emergencies. The program was used to help manage the airspace for UAS.&nbsp;Mariah Scott, chief operating officer for Skyward, emphasizes that even without a mature, comprehensive national traffic management system in place for UAS, the present system enables businesses that want to take advantage of the technology to operate commercially today.&nbsp;“Traffic management is often thought of as something in the future that has to happen for package delivery, but actually safe integration of UAS into the airspace and managing that airspace is happening right now,” she says. “That’s the service that we’re providing for commercial operators.“In the long term, package delivery and really sophisticated route planning and traffic management is coming,” she continues. “But right now, we’re already seeing systems to manage the airspace and to safely integrate UAS.”In discussing the need for UTM, Kopardekar and Glasgow each invoked an event from 1956 when two airliners collided in midair over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people on board. At the time, it was thought that there was little need for air traffic control over remote areas. The accident provided the incentive to create the FAA.“I think all of us live in fear of that kind of moment happening again with a UAS,” Glasgow notes. “It’s not a good thought.”Kopardekar concurs and adds, “We wanted to make sure that we have some system in place so that we don’t repeat history. That’s the impetus behind this research initiative.”Author: Patrick C. Miller&nbsp; Staff Writer, UAS Magazine&nbsp; pmiller@bbiinternational.com&nbsp; 701-738-4923

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NASA works with the UAS industry to get drone traffic under control

Bringing UAS Traffic Management Down To Earth

The issue of privacy for the unmanned aircraft systems industry has never been more public. Following the now-famous drone on the White House lawn event that pushed the UAS and privacy issue into the brightest of spotlights, the Obama administration took action. The administration created a multi-stakeholder process designed to explore and entertain the plausible answers to the many concerns voiced by both industry skeptics and supporters on the topic of privacy. To lead the process, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration was tasked to act as main moderator and push stakeholders past petty arguments on process or general constitutional rights toward a definition of privacy relative to what is and is not acceptable when UAS operate in the national airspace.Why NTIA?&nbsp;&nbsp; When the Obama administration issued its memorandum of understanding calling on NTIA to commence its UAS efforts, Juliana Gruenwald, press secretary for NTIA, said the goal was to come up with best practices related to privacy, transparency and accountability in commercial and private use of UAS. “The reason they looked to us to do that is we have a track record for driving these stakeholder-driven processes,” she says.&nbsp;Previously, the NTIA led efforts for two different privacy-related processes. It has also earned a reputation for succeeding with the process for an industry that some believe the UAS world could someday rival: the Internet.&nbsp;“We have been big champions of this tool of multistakeholder processes,” Gruenwald says. “The idea is that you have the stakeholders come up with the process and drive the solution.”&nbsp;According to Gruenwald, this is how the Internet is run, and how NTIA was able to push an Internet focused stakeholder group to create practices used today. Various groups, like the internet engineer task force, comes up with technical proposals and a group of stakeholders vets out the proposals before finalizing a course of action or protocol implementation. The NTIA acts as a neutral convener by posing questions, gathering perspective and pushing the right buttons during the process to garner resolution towards a more realized end goal. When stakeholders disagree, NTIA’s role is to help the parties involved reach clarity on what their positions are and whether there are options for compromise toward consensus, the NTIA says.&nbsp;Following the presidential memorandum issued in February, NTIA set up a call for public comment in March. While the NTIA process to date has completed three stakeholder meetings broadcast live from Washington, D.C., along with an evolving draft of best practices, the work on addressing the issue of privacy has, essentially, gone under the radar. But, the multi stakeholder process could someday be viewed as the foothold for all future UAS-privacy discussions. Unlike other efforts of the NTIA, this UAS work will not yield official regulations, instead only a best case scenario, a code of conduct or list of best practices that UAS industry members could or should abide by. Based on the range of participating stakeholders (and the range of participant perspectives) the issue of privacy is a long way from becoming clear. Several trends have emerged through the process, however. And, when the process is concluded, it is clear the topic of privacy, transparency and accountability will have been well-vetted.Stakeholders’ View&nbsp; When NTIA issued a call for comments and an invitation for stakeholders to participate in its efforts, more than 50 entities responded. “It’s been an interesting group compared to some of our past processes,” Gruenwald says. One of the past privacy efforts NTIA led was for cell phone app privacy issues. That group created a code of conduct that, if adopted by companies, opened up each firm to federal trade commission enforcement. The UAS effort will not yield such serious consequences. “For some of these people, it is a different process. The government isn’t driving the process, they are.”The list of stakeholders involved in the process today, or have issued commentary to the NTIA in the past, is wide-ranging, from Amazon to major law firms to Tim McGowan, a comment provider who only offered a short statement and a home mailing address. McGowan’s comments, however short or stark when compared to the multi paged, professionally penned statements by others, seemed to highlight one of the main issues many of the stakeholders in the process pointed out early on in the process.&nbsp;In providing his comments, McGowan wrote, “Just so long as I can shoot them [sUAVs] when they take pictures or photos of me, my family or my property I have no problem with them. I would also like to get paid when they travel across my property,” he said.&nbsp;Brendan Schulman, writing from the perspective of a long-time UAS industry player and actual sUAV pilot (and not the legal counsel for DJI he is now), helped bring the comments and views of McGowan into a greater context. Should the UAS industry receive special privacy regulation or do current laws suffice? Does McGowan’s commentary mean UAS should require special attention?&nbsp;“Physical intrusions that capture photography in inappropriate locations or to advance prurient interests are already largely addressed by state laws concerning stalking, unlawful surveillance, trespassing, peeping and similar civil and criminal provisions,” Schulman said.&nbsp;James Grimsley, president of Design Intelligence LLC and the Oklahoma UAS chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International, echoed Schulman’s stance on UAS-specific privacy rules. “Although a few of the privacy concerns are unique to UAS, most others are not. Often,” he said, “broadly applicable laws or rules already cover the perceived harm in question”&nbsp;For Schulman and Grimsley, addressing the privacy concerns of many relative to UAS requires a look at what may make UAS technology unique and in need of new or specific rules. “I strongly believe it is important to focus the policymaking process on privacy harms the multi stakeholder participants determine are realistically unique to UAS technology and avoid imaginary harms that have no rational basis in reality, or that are already addressed by existing laws,” Grimsely said.&nbsp;“An invasion of privacy achieved by use of a tripod and zoom lens is just as offensive as one achieved by use of a drone, and likely already prohibited,” Schulman said. “Thus, the focus should be on what differences, if any, render UAS technology subject to differing standards or use restrictions,” he said.&nbsp;The differing standards should be based on the following: operational location of the UAS in places where manned aircraft cannot fly or do not typically fly; operational location of the UAS at altitudes below “navigable airspace” in places that raise actual privacy concerns; operations that involve persistent surveillance as opposed to the more transient nature of manned aircraft operations and data security issues when the captured data involves personally identifiable information of non-consenting persons.&nbsp;Jill Bronfman, program director of the privacy and technology project at the University of California Hasting’s college of law, believes we need to redefine the legal privacy parameters and physical space perimeters to include aerial space. “To leave this space unregulated is to invite commerce in without safeguards for individual privacy,” she said.&nbsp;A congressional hearing earlier this year debated the topic of reasonable aerial space privacy perimeters. Hearing members asked if privacy expectations were considered to span several feet above a property or if a drone hovering only inches above ground within the boundaries of a private property was still legal.&nbsp;While few stakeholders have voiced concern over aerial privacy perimeter standards, many pointed to the data captured through UAV operations as a crucial topic in addressing the privacy issue. AUVSI spoke to data directly, saying, that, “…the real issue at hand is the collection, retention and sharing of data. There is no difference between an image taken from a two-pound sUAS, a manned helicopter or a large UAS flying in class A airspace. It’s the activity of collecting data that should be regulated as opposed to the platform doing the collecting,” they said.&nbsp;Jerry Mohr, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association voiced concerns about data collection in the agriculture sector. “We recognize that state and local governments may also find value in using UAS for designated governmental purposes,” he said. “However, any data incidentally collected by any government agency regarding private property must not be used for regulatory purposes against farmers and must not be able to be obtained by outside parties under a Freedom of Information request.”&nbsp;To address the data issue, many stakeholders suggest a notice of operations model should be deployed. Bronfman said disclosure of information models should be utilized. Online service maps, posted notices, markings, warranties and warnings and even do-not-call lists should be created for individuals or entities in the flight path of UAV operations. Margot Kaminski, a UAS expert, believes a notice of use, notice of data collection and a notice of what data is collected when and how, should also be a standard practice for commercial UAS operators.&nbsp;Although data collection and usage was a popular talking point commented on by the stakeholders, thus far, only one entity called out the stakeholder process itself like the New Jersey Institute of Technology Unmanned Aircraft Systems Working Group did. “Due to the significance of this new industry, many UAS-interested parties may be unable to provide well-informed comments because of the processes to establish governance and policy adhere to static and non-innovative administration,” the group said. The evolving nature of the technology behind the UAS industry makes creating policies through traditional means impractical, the group believes.&nbsp;Because of the wide range of perspective and emphasis on various topics, only one stakeholder seemed to offer a relevant assumption suitable for all stakeholders. “It is important to be accepting of the fact that a single set of perspectives will not be appropriate for all jurisdictions,” said Matthew Bieschke, president of UAS America Fund LLC.Best Practice&nbsp; There is no timetable or end-goal of the group, Gruenwald says. Only the stakeholders will be able to define the outcome. To date, the NTIA is happy it has helped the group create a working draft document outlining what commercial UAS operators should do to mitigate privacy concerns. The draft, at press time, is now in its second version. The 13-page draft in its second version, at press time, includes seven principles that should be enacted. Although there is not timetable for the draft to be a completed document, it is clear that perspectives on UAS privacy are many and after this process led by the NTIA, the voices of many could be corralled into the larger belief on a single group. “We try and push them to reach an end point,” Gruenwald says. “They work to find their own consensus.”Author: Luke Geiver&nbsp; Editor, UAS Magazine&nbsp; lgeiver@bbiinternational.com&nbsp; 701-738-4944

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The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is leading a multi participant process to address the main questions and plausible answers to privacy issues for the UAS industry. 

Stakeholder Perspectives: UAS And Privacy

Virginia Tech University researchers have developed a computer simulation model that reveals the effects of a small unmanned aircraft vehicle’s impact on an airliner’s turbofan jet engine. Current turbofan engines are designed to withstand the ingestion of birds, hail or small runway debris. Until now, the effects of a drone-to-engine encounter were unknown. “We never—in the design of these systems decades ago—thought about an actual rigid object as big as a drone flying next to the engine and being ingested by it,” said Javid Bayander, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, and the director of the school’s Crashworthiness for Aerospace Structures and Hybrids (CRASH) lab.&nbsp;The simulation research found that an sUAV could create significant damage to the engine. “A jet engine is a very delicate system and the tolerances are minute,” Bayander said. “If you introduce an unbalance to the system through the impulse that a drone brings with it and then cause even one blade to move a little bit off-center, everything around the shroud will be affected by it.”&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

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UAS NEWS | Simulation Model Shows  Engine Ingesting Drone

Microsoft Corp. and high-end camera maker Hasselblad have entered the unmanned aircraft systems market through partnerships with major small unmanned aircraft vehicle platform manufacturers.&nbsp;DJI has acquired a strategic, undisclosed minority stake in the Sweden-based camera firm because the two “share a passion to provide creative people with cutting-edge, inventive technology to help them take visual storytelling to the next level,” according to Frank Wang, DJI founder and CEO. DJI is no stranger to camera creation. Earlier this year, it released a product called the Zenmuse X5. The Zenmuse X5 features a three-axis gimbal stabilization system and a sensor that allows for eight times greater pixel clarity than any previous DJI versions.&nbsp;There has been no official word on the next step for DJI and Hasselblad, but each will continue designing and manufacturing their products in their current locations. Hasselblad will continue building cameras in Sweden while DJI will continue to make its platforms in Shenzhen, China.&nbsp;Aeryon Labs Inc., a Canada-based sUAS manufacturer, has formed a tech-based partnership with Microsoft. The SkyRanger, Aeryon’s sUAS, will be paired with Microsoft’s advanced patrol vehicle that is made for law enforcement and emergency personnel. The Microsoft Advanced Patrol Platform vehicle is equipped with a tablet and mobile device that provides information and real-time intelligence. The MAPP vehicle was designed, in part, by law enforcement officials.&nbsp;“Including SkyRanger within MAPP vehicles rounds out the comprehensive suite of technologies and highlights the value of aerial intelligence for ground-based personnel,” said Dave Kroetsch, Aeryon president and CEO.&nbsp;

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UAS NEWS | Big Name Firms Enter Drone Industry

Technology developers focused on the unmanned aircraft systems industry are turning their attention to the ground. A major UAS manufacturer and a national think tank––Lockheed Martin and Battelle Memorial Institute, respectively­­––have issued updates on work to mitigate out-of-boundary or dangerous unmanned aircraft vehicles through ground-based operations and equipment.&nbsp;With its new system called ICARUS, Lockheed can detect and counter emerging UAV threats. The system can detect, locate and mitigate an approaching UAV. Lockheed displayed the system at a military event earlier this year. The system relies on data captured through imagery, acoustic and radio frequency sensors to effectively cancel out an approaching UAV’s cameras, disable flight or take control of the UAV to move it to a safe zone. The non-kinetic system is designed for group 1 UAS and sUAS platforms.“The U.S. government is seeing an increase in the use of commercially available UAS platforms for surveillance and weaponization,” said Deon Viergutz, vice president of cyber solutions for Lockheed. Viergutz said ICARUS can offer “pinpoint accuracy” in detecting UAS with its software package.&nbsp;Battelle has also come out with an anti-drone technology package. The institution has trademarked a system it calls the DroneDefender. Developed for use on a long-rifle platform, Battelle describes the system as a “portable, accurate, rapid-to-use” counter-weapon capable of stopping suspicious or hostile drones in flight.&nbsp;Up to 400 meters, the point and shoot system can repel drones without doing damage to the systems. Any system operating with a GPS or ISM band frequency can be controlled by the DroneDefender. Battelle has already demonstrated the system in field trials. The system has also been showcased on a YouTube video featured on the Battelle homepage. In the video, an sUAV attempts to fly over a restricted and fenced area. A security agent steps out of a truck, grabs and deploys the system by pointing it directly at the drone in flight. The security agent then directs the drone to the ground by moving the tip of the system towards the ground.&nbsp;The DroneDefender could be available to the public in 2016, Battelle said. The platform weighs less than 10 pounds and can be run in a fixed or portable scenario. In either scenario, the system can be operated for roughly 10 minutes.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

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UAS NEWS | Detecting, Controlling Dangerous UAVs

Pathfinder Add-On&nbsp; Following an increase in reports of UAVs operating in close proximity to runways and airports, the FAA has added a new participant to its Pathfinder efforts. Through CACI, an aerospace technology developer, the FAA will allow the testing of a system to detect, identify and track UAVs flying in restricted airspace. The CACI system detects various sensor systems. The FAA will deploy the system at select airports and report findings in the future.&nbsp;LATAS In Flight&nbsp;&nbsp; In coordination with Verizon, Harris and DigitalGlobe Inc., PrecisionHawk has completed initial testing on its low-altitude traffic and airspace safety (LATAS) system. Verizon provided its LTE network, while Harris supplied its ADS-B network. DigitalGlobal provided access to its big data system to record and analyze the findings from the a flight employing LATAS. The system connects airspace safety technologies such as detect and avoid, dynamic geofencing and aircraft tracking to provide “safety as a service” for the drone market, according to PrecisionHawk.&nbsp;The company was granted the ability to perform LATAS testing through its inclusion into the FAA’s Pathfinder program. PrecisionHawk was given the ability to explore UAS flights outside the pilots direct vision. “We are leveraging satellite-derived information to create consistent information and analytics for safe drone flights,” said Shay Har-Noy, senior director of geospatial big data at DigitalGlobe. “This is significant collaboration that represents a huge step forward for the FAA and the safety and well-being of the American public.”&nbsp;Historic BVLOS Flight&nbsp; The first commercial beyond-visual-line-of-sight operation in the continuous 48 states happened in New Mexico, thanks to the FAA’s Pathfinder program. In October, Insitu flew its fixed-wing ScanEagle along a section of railroad owned and operated by BNSF. The flights occurred during a week-long period across a railway section spanning 132 miles. All flights were performed with the approval of the FAA through its Pathfinder project.&nbsp;Insitu coordinated the flights with the U.S. Air Force and other nearby airports. Visual observers were stationed at three airports. There were no ground observers or chase aircraft used to monitor the flight of the ScanEagle. The first flight test spanned 64 miles and provided the operators and BNSF participants with real-time video.&nbsp;Charlton Evans, Insitu’s program manager for commercial and civil operation, said BNSF can use its UAV to monitor warped track, washouts, major erosions or bridge outages. “This is a supplemental method of seeing things in a more real-time way,” Evan said. “While all those other sensor methods are able to give them a whole ton of data, there’s really nothing like seeing the track just before the train gets there to know that the track is, in fact, there and healthy and ready for the next train.”During testing, BNSF representatives were watching the operations. According to Evans, the BNSF team was discussing more use cases for the system even as it was in flight.&nbsp;BNSF currently monitors tracks with ground- or vehicle-mounted sensors along with handheld sensors. Following the flights, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum asked Insitu to donate the ScanEagle to the museum. “It’s neat to make a little history now and again,” he said. “I don’t know how many aviation firsts there are left to make, but this is definitely a couple of them that we are proud of.”&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

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UAS NEWS | UAS Pathfinder Updates

In a rare appearance before a congressional committee held this fall, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta answered several questions on UAS. His comments highlighted the level of understanding and shifting focus Congress has displayed on the topic of UAS throughout the past year. According to Huerta, the FAA is making progress, even if it is slow (new policy creation is meant to be slow, Huerta reminded Congress). The FAA is working to deal with the changing focus of Congress regarding UAVs while it continues its unprecedented efforts to bring UAS into the national airspace. Roughly 18 months ago, privacy was a big issue amongst Congress members, he said. Then, the focus shifted to getting UAS into the NA quicker. “Today,” he said, “safety is a big issue.”&nbsp;A look back at the FAA’s participation in congressional hearings shows that Huerta is right. It also reveals that those three themes—safety, integration into the NAS and privacy concerns—have been present in every hearing. Each hearing has had a main focus, however.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

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UAS NEWS | Shifting Views of Congress

Brett Terwilliger and his team at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide want to make unmanned aircraft vehicle consumers’ aviation experts. “There are a lot of people that understand technology but not aviation,” Terwilliger said. To help first-time and experienced sUAV buyers with their next purchase, Terwilliger, program chair of ERAU’s Unmanned Systems College of Aeronautics, is uniting ERAU faculty and students to create a consumer guide complete with a detailed review of several sUAV platforms.&nbsp;The guide will also provide information on flight operations, safety protocols and regulatory necessities. “These are aircraft. With that understanding comes a level of knowledge, skills and ability that really needs to be applied in their operation. To be able to maintain safety and effectiveness of this technology we need to make sure folks have access to the tools they need to succeed,” he said.&nbsp;To create the guide, the ERAU team identified more than 500 UAVs. After narrowing its review criteria, the group created a list of roughly 375 platforms that would be suitable for inclusion in a review. Although the guide will not be complete by the 2015 holiday shopping season—the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration estimates roughly 700,000 to 1 million sUAV will be purchased this holiday season—Terwilliger said the guide could be complete in 2016.&nbsp;Test flights have already been performed on multiple sUAVs and future test flights and demonstrations are planned in 2016. Review members will also compare their own findings to other reviews. A crowdfunding campaign has been started to fund the purchase of sUAVs for review. Terwilliger is also seeking industry support through the donation of platforms to enhance the number of sUAVs reviewed in the guide.&nbsp;“This guide will be prepared to help users evaluate options for purchase, appropriate to their skill and experience levels, while introducing key metrics for future consumer comparison,” he said.&nbsp;Consumers will not only receive intel on the best sUAV for their specific plans. The guide also helps ERAU’s efforts in educating the general sUAV operator on the safety aspects and responsibilities of flying, Terwilliger said.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

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UAS NEWS | Detailed sUAS Consumer Guide in the Works

There is only one way to describe UAS in 2015: Historic. It can easily be argued that during the past 12 months, the number of first-time accomplishments or breakthrough moments recorded was unrivaled in the history of UAS.&nbsp; By year’s end, more than 2,300 entities in the U.S. will have officially operated a small unmanned aircraft vehicle for commercial purposes in the national airspace (compared to eight last year). Over the holidays, a record number of sUAVs–– U.S. Federal Aviation Administration estimates 1 million platforms–– will be purchased. Microsoft Corp. and Hasselblad—the Swedish camera maker responsible for the first picture ever taken on the moon—entered the UAS industry. Thanks to Insitu and BNSF, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., &nbsp;will soon be displaying the fixed-wing ScanEagle used to conduct the first-ever beyond visual-line-of-sight flight performed without a daisy-chain approach or a chase plane following the UAV. Through the FAA Pathfinder project, the ScanEagle flew more than 100 miles of BNSF-owned rail line. Charlton Evans, Insitu’s program manager for commercial and civil operations, told UAS Magazine Staff Writer Patrick Miller that as BNSF team members watched a live video stream of the flight over the ScanEagle operators’ shoulders, “they were coming up with use cases for the system that they hadn’t thought of prior,” and that such commentary is “just a natural extension of seeing the system at work. There is no reason for the momentum to wain in the coming year. Pathfinder work will continue, more 333s will be granted, rules for sUAS should become official and among many other 2016 probabilities, test sites will continue to solidify research capable of driving standards and policies. To help illuminate the UAS scene in 2016, we close out the year with a look at two of the most important issues standing in the way of the UAS industry’s complete acceptance and role in our lives. In the feature, “Stakeholder Perspectives: UAS and Privacy,” we detailed the efforts of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to lead a group of industry-affiliated entities toward the creation of a best practices guide for UAS privacy concerns. The NTIA was chosen to be a neutral moderator in the process based on its previous work helping solidify the framework and operating standards for a different industry the UAS world is sometimes compared to: the Internet. The NTIA’s efforts to date have yielded an array of opinions on what is important to consider when talking about UAS and privacy. Although there is no clear timeline for an end result, the efforts of the NTIA and stakeholders involved reveal the overarching challenges for all involved in explaining how the UAS industry intersects with privacy. To highlight the incredible work of several private and public entities that are making UAS traffic management safe and secure—from North Dakota-based Botlink to world-recognized NASA—Miller laid out the many approaches being deployed today. A large part of the effort is providing UAS operators with the information they need to improve situational awareness, which includes knowing where manned and unmanned aircraft are operating, weather conditions and temporary flight restrictions. We look forward to the year ahead. In fact, like most of you, we are ramping up our operations. Expect additional print issues of UAS Magazine in 2016. As the historic rise of UAS continues, we are here to be part of it.Author: Luke Geiver Editor, UAS Magazine lgeiver@bbiinternational.com&nbsp;

UAS Magazine Q4 2015

Columns

Why 2015 Was Historic For UAS

Featured

Bringing UAS Traffic Management Down To Earth

Stakeholder Perspectives: UAS And Privacy

Departments

UAS NEWS | Simulation Model Shows Engine Ingesting Drone

UAS NEWS | Big Name Firms Enter Drone Industry

UAS NEWS | Detecting, Controlling Dangerous UAVs

UAS NEWS | UAS Pathfinder Updates

UAS NEWS | Shifting Views of Congress

UAS NEWS | Detailed sUAS Consumer Guide in the Works

UAS Magazine Q4 2015.css-7jxktu{position:absolute;bottom:0px;left:0px;right:0px;height:3px;border-radius:3px;background-color:var(--chakra-colors-brandBlack);}

Columns

Why 2015 Was Historic For UAS

Featured

Bringing UAS Traffic Management Down To Earth

Stakeholder Perspectives: UAS And Privacy

Departments

UAS NEWS | Simulation Model Shows Engine Ingesting Drone

UAS NEWS | Big Name Firms Enter Drone Industry

UAS NEWS | Detecting, Controlling Dangerous UAVs

UAS NEWS | UAS Pathfinder Updates

UAS NEWS | Shifting Views of Congress

UAS NEWS | Detailed sUAS Consumer Guide in the Works

UAS Magazine Q4 2015